Intelligent Asia, one of the largest industrial procurement platforms in the region, opened in Taipei yesterday, featuring automation and robotics, along with a wide range of other technologies.

Roughly 1,200 exhibitors at about 4,000 booths are displaying technologies in the fields of logistics, cold chain, 3D printing, molds and dies, lasers, fluid power and smart machinery.

The event is to run until Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Halls 1 and 2.

Photo: RITCHIE B. TONGO, EPA-EFE

Taiwanese, German, Japanese and Swiss firms are showcasing automation and robotics technologies, featuring industrial computers, industrial control systems, robotic arms, automation software, measuring and inspection equipment, automated guided devices, processing tools, and artificial intelligence applications, the event’s organizers said.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the opening ceremony that Taiwan aims to partner with regional economies in the development of smart manufacturing, at a time when global supply chains are being restructured and business opportunities in digital transformation are emerging as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her administration has prioritized the development of smart machinery and it continues to offer incentives for Taiwanese investors in that field to return home, she said.

Taiwan is looking to integrate its hardware and software expertise at this critical time for the development of smart manufacturing, Tsai said, noting the nation’s ranking in this year’s World Competitiveness Yearbook.

Taiwan moved up one spot from last year to seventh place and maintained its ranking as the third-most competitive economy in Asia in the yearbook compiled by the International Institute for Management Development.

With a ministry of digital affairs set to be inaugurated tomorrow, Taiwan is poised to accelerate its digital transformation and build a digital economy, Tsai said.

One of Taiwan’s major goals is to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and the government would invest NT$900 billion (US$29.73 billion) over the next eight years, she said.

Advantech Co Ltd (研華), the world’s biggest industrial PC maker, said at the event that it would, with its counterparts such as Smasoft Technology Co (偲倢科技), Hiti Industrial Automation Co (誠睿自動化), eAI Technology Inc (漢門科技), Prowave Engineering Inc (譜威科技) and Servtech Co (科智企業), push for green industrial transformation.

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